VlogJam: The new thing is video

The new thing is video. You can't be a respectable presidential candidate, news outlet or blogger today if you're not doing something with Web video. What that something is, not many people have figured out. Mary Katharine Ham has her own brand of low-budget, right-wing humor, and Hillary Clinton has a "look-what-a-regular-person-I-am" style that she employed to announce her run for president. Toward the front of the pack is James Kotecki, a 21-year-old dude who just graduated from college.

Name: James Kotecki

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Vlogs at: jameskotecki.com and YouTube.com

Under the name: EmergencyCheese on YouTube

Hometown: Washington

Age: 21, born Oct. 23, 1985

Day job: Consults for the firm Cyprus Group, a financial services company. "I'd love to be able to support myself (by vlogging), but I don't want to rush into anything," Kotecki said. His job is flexible and his bosses let him make videos from the office, so he's in no hurry to leave, he said.

Started vlogging: Jan. 27, 2007. In his first video, he said, he simply parroted what the mainstream media was saying about the presidential candidates. He quickly ditched the formulaic and predictable approach and decided to start vlogging about … vlogging. "I started commenting on candidates themselves and how they were doing on YouTube. I figured I could be more effective if I carved out a niche instead of saying what everyone else is saying."

Political leaning: Kotecki wouldn't bite, refusing to delve into his politics. "I try to make sure my videos are as nonpartisan as possible," he said. "I do have political views and I do vote, but it's all about, for me, my love of the political process and how the candidates use the technology."

Reminded that party affiliation is public record, Kotecki said, "Well, you can look it up. I don't think that I'm registered anymore. I had my affiliation registered but I changed it to independent, I believe." Kotecki was correct: North Carolina, where he's registered, lists him as "unaffiliated." He's also taken the ultimate nonpartisan step: "On my Facebook profile, I took (my political view) down," said the 2007 Georgetown University graduate.

Killer posts: He did the first-ever dorm-room video interview with a presidential candidate when Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) stopped by. "I felt I was breaking a lot of new ground there," he said. Paul's fans on the Internet -- of which there are legions -- pushed the video and drove up traffic. BlogJam isn't in the habit of editorializing, but the semi-satirical rap Kotecki did to celebrate his 1,000th subscriber is a must-watch:

And yes, I admit my generation's apathetic But maybe that's because your talking points are all synthetic The real point here is other people agree And that's why I went from one zero to three.

Biggest blunder: "A lack of technical proficiency," Kotecki said. He did an interview with Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio) and didn't know how to use the camera well. He ended up making Kucinich look quite small compared to him. "I kinda felt bad," he said.

"If you talk about race, someone will probably call you a racist," he said. "But I was surprised at some of the backlash."

It didn't hurt viewership. Kotecki said theirs was the 78th most-subscribed-to channel last week on YouTube and the video was No. 50 on its list of top-rated news and politics videos. (For updates, visit for the channel's standing and for the video's ranking.) They'll continue, he said, to deal with racial issues in the next few videos -- including one to respond to comments about the original one -- but may branch out to other topics later.

Blog philosophy: "For YouTube especially, it's not really a philosophy, but it's a matter of practicality. It's very important for people to have a plan of what they're going to say before they say it," he said. "Because if you do that on your YouTube videos, it sets you apart from a lot of the video bloggers."